This transcript has been automatically generated, and therefore may not be 100% accurate.

Well, there are some places in the world, aren't there, where you kind of can feel the history. You stand in a place and you can kind of just imagine the events that took place on this spot, even just take a mental tour in your minds around the city of London, for example. You could be standing at that monument in Pudding Lane, couldn't you, and think, oh, I wonder what nice cakes they made here. All that kind of thing. You could think about all the bakers that were doing all sorts of things and how lovely that was.

You could be standing at Shakespeare's Globe. I think it's fake. It's not the original, isn't it? They built a new one. But you can imagine that site, can't you?

And all the plays that were performed throughout history. You could be standing at Lord's Cricket Ground. Imagine all the players that have passed through there, all the centuries scored, standing in that sporting history. You could be in the palace of Westminster. Imagine all the heads of states, the prime ministers, the kings and queens that had stood in that place.

Or you could be in the Cabinet War Rooms and think of the battles won and lost from that room. Places which ooze history and conjure up memories. And somehow these places allow you to pause in time, looking back on so much history and also, in some ways, looking ahead to the future. These are special sites that allow you to, as it were, stand back and look at history. They might make you think, what will the future hold?

What will my life look like as I look back? On the shoulders of giants, people who've gone before us. Last week, I was in this room with a group of beavers. We were doing a church search, kind of exploring the church building, finding out a little bit about the history. And I was struck afresh just how much history is here.

You only have to look at the bits that are falling down to think, gosh, this is old. And you look at some of the plaques on the wall and the floor and all the old vicars on the board at the back, and you think, gosh, there's a lot of history here. A lot of people have come before us, have sung hymns of praise in this place. So many stories on the wall which speak of joy, generosity, sacrifice, tragedy. Now, in Joshua, chapter 24, this final chapter of Joshua, God's people find themselves in this place of history, a place where they're standing, it causes them to pause and look back at all that's gone before and to look ahead to the future.

Look at verse one there with me. We've just Read the second half of the chapter. We're going to look at first half as well. Joshua, chapter 24, verse 1 says, Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.

Now they're in this place called Shechem. And this is one of those places where you can feel a sense of the history around you. We first read about Shechem in Genesis chapter 12, because that's the place where God makes a great promise to Abraham. He promises to Abraham, I will make you a great nation. It says in verse 7 of Genesis 12, the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to your offspring, I will give this land.

So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. This is right back at the very beginning. God in Shechem makes great promises to Abraham, comes up again. Then in Genesis chapter 33, where we meet Jacob, Abraham's grandson, and he buys a plot of land in Shechem, as it were, putting a marker down in the promised land. This is the land which the Lord is going to give us.

And then you may remember in Joshua chapter 28. Sorry, not 28, Joshua, chapter 8, Shechem is the town. And Ben told us about this, the town between the two mountains. So in Joshua 8, you've got the Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. And in the middle is this town, Shechem.

And that is the place where God's people renew their covenant with him. So Shechem is very much the epicentre for the history of God's people in the promised land. From here flow so many people and promises. And it's those promises which are really important. And that's how the first half of Joshua 24 goes.

It's a reminder of all of God's promises, all of the things that he's done for God's people in their history. So if you just look down through the first section of Joshua, chapter 24. So if you just scan down verses two to four, it's talking about the call of Abraham, talking about when God called Abraham from his own land, that he might one day take up a land that God was going to give him. Verses 5 to 7, it's the story of the Exodus. It's Moses and Aaron.

It's all about when God rescued his people out of Egypt.

And then verses 8 to 10, we get into the more present day for God's people. This is some of the stuff we've done in the book of Joshua. It talks about when God brought his people through the land on the east of the Jordan, some of the battles they won. It talks about Balaam there, how he protected his people from curses. And then the next section, verse 11 to 13, talks about some of the battles won on the west side of the Jordan after they crossed over.

It's a very brief history of how God has been calling and leading and guiding his people, protecting and sustaining them from the very early days of calling Abraham now to the point where they're about to enter the land which God is giving them. And that is always the history of God's people. It's all about what God has done for them. Well, the repeated word you get in that first section is I, I, I, I. And it's God speaking.

It's all about what he did, how he led them, how he guided them. It's about his rescue and his redemption, his protection, his provision, his generosity and grace. It's his victory. And it's all summed up for them in verse 13. Verse 13 of chapter 24 gives us a great summary.

God says, so I gave you a land on which you did not toil, cities you did not build, and you live in them and eat from the vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant. They're about to enter the land, this gift that God is giving them. He says, you didn't do any of it. This land, it's a gift. I gave it to you.

You did nothing to earn it. And that's the history of God's people. God saving them, rescuing them, being gracious to them. So what about us? This book of Joshua that we've been looking at over recent weeks might seem ancient, far removed from us today.

And yet the parallels are striking. A people standing at a point in history, looking back on all that God has done for them in the past and looking ahead to their inheritance, picture their timeline. Here God's people stand with Joshua looking back at the faith of their forefathers, of battles won, of God keeping his promises, and looking ahead to their inheritance, this land that they're about to take possession of.

Now picture the timeline of the Christian, our timeline. Here you stand with Jesus, the better Joshua, looking back at heroes of the faith, seeing God's faithfulness and looking back ultimately to the cross and resurrection, the ultimate victory, the ultimate battle won, God's promises kept for you. And we look ahead to our eternal inheritance, life with Jesus forever. Now, when you stand at that place and you look back, there's a good chance you won't like everything you see, if we, as it were, look back at our own timeline, we also see our mistakes, our regrets, our what ifs. But that's not the history that God's interested in.

That's not the history of God's people that he's interested in. When he looks back at their history, he sees his power, his saving work, his kindness, his love for you. And of course, we have an even better timeline to stand in, don't we? We have more blessings to look back on. We get to see God's work in the lives of even more people.

We get to see God living with his people, God dying for his people. God not just winning battles and defeating enemies, but destroying death itself. What a place in history it is for us to be standing right now. Not because there's something special about us, not because we're going to be history makers, not because God's going to do something amazing and special in our day, but because God has already made history. Jesus has already divided eternity and we get to look back and see it completed.

What a joy to be standing here in our day to look back at what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. So what do we do in this space, this timeline, as if we're looking back, how do we respond? Well, the Apostle Paul pictures a similar scene in the book of Romans, beginning of chapter 12, Paul's writing to the Christians in Rome about their place in their timeline. And he says this to them, Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship.

I love that phrase. In view of God's mercy, it's though he's getting them to picture the timeline in view of all that God has done, in view of his kindness, his mercy, his faithfulness most fully displayed in Jesus, his death and resurrection. For you, in view of all that, as you stand on the timeline and look back in view of his mercies, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship.

What a great encouragement. In view of all that God has done for us, we can offer ourselves in service and worship to God. But what about Joshua? How did he respond? Well, let's have a quick look at how he responded and the people responded.

First thing I think he does is he, he wants to remember. He wants to remember where he came from, where the people came from, and then he wants to forget it. Remember where you came from and then forget it. You see, when we Celebrate someone like Abraham as a great father of the faith. It's easy to forget where he came from.

We kind of sort of assume he was always a hero. But that's not true, is it? Joshua 24:2. It says, Long ago your ancestors, including Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates river and worshipped other gods. Abraham was born in Iraq and he worshipped other gods.

He was on the wrong side of the wrong river. His hometown, a place called Ur, was famous for worshipping a moon God called Nanna. Okay, that's where he's from. And you could read Abraham's story and think, wow, he's really special, isn't he, because God chose him. Or you could read it and say, if God chose Abraham, he really can choose anyone from anywhere, can't he?

This is not a great hero of the faith. This is a man born in the wrong place, worshipping the wrong gods. And look as well how the people are described. In verse seven, it says, then you lived in the wilderness for a long time. It's quite a long piece of history to summarise in just a few words.

Then you lived in the wilderness for a long time. It's a throwaway line, but it describes decades of rebellion. These are not a special people. They're often a stubborn people. So Joshua wants to look back.

He wants us to see God's grace working through history, through families. He wants us to see how God's worked even through the hard times, even through the times of rebellion. But he also then wants us to forget that life and leave it behind. Verse 14. After that summary, he begins speaking to people now.

Fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods of your ancestors he worshipped beyond the Euphrates river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. There's a sense, perhaps, in which the people were still clinging on to two lives, their old lives and the God of their ancestors and the new life into which God was bringing them. Joshua says, throw the old away. Throw the old away.

Doesn't Jesus say the same thing, says, if something causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away? He says, no one can serve two masters. Can't hold on to both things. Throw it away. And the apostle Paul says the same thing to the new Christians in Corinth, who add all sorts of things, pulling them back to their old life.

He says to them, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old has gone, the new is here. God is making a covenant, a special promise with his people. But this is an exclusive commitment. Some of this language gets picked up in marriage vows. Couples are asked to forsake all others, to leave everything else behind for the sake of this new, exclusive commitment.

They promised to cleave, to draw close to one another. And we see that worked out in verse 23. You see what he says there? He says, yield your hearts to the God of Israel. Give everything to him.

That's what this commitment is. It's worth pausing there and just reflecting on that, isn't it?

What things from your past or your present do you need to say goodbye to? Do you need to let go of the attitudes which put me first, the words which cut others down, the behaviours which hurt myself and hurt others, the altars on which we sacrifice our time and money, the relationships which pull me away from Jesus?

How do we throw them away? Leave them behind, leave them in the past, all sorts of things. And there'll be different things for different people, things that stop you from being wholeheartedly committed to Jesus. As Joshua stands among the people, they're ready to enter the inheritance they've been promised. So leave the old behind, let go of those gods, and you know, we can confidently leave the past behind, because Jesus offers a better future, a perfect inheritance.

And that's what Joshua really wants the people to do. He wants them to see that. That the future is better. The inheritance they've been promised is all they need. And so he says to them, decide for today.

Make a decision today. Decide for today and live for eternity. Decide for today and live for eternity. You see, these events, this history lesson, doesn't just serve to provoke nostalgia. Rather, Joshua wants them to prompt a decision.

Verse 15, he says to them, but if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods of your ancestors who served beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in his land, you are living. Joshua demands a decision from the people as you choose, who are you going to serve?

And he demands a decision from you, from each one of us. Not a decision from your parents. Not a decision when I'm a bit older and got my life sorted, but a decision from you. Today, who will you serve, the old or the new? And Joshua, by way of example, lays his cards on the table there in verse 15 at the end, there.

But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. In a sense, he's saying, it doesn't matter what you decide. I'm following the Lord. It doesn't matter what decision my family take, I'm following the Lord. Doesn't matter what path my friends follow, what direction society heads in.

What matters is the decision that you take today. Will you serve the Lord? Will you follow Jesus? Even as the majority turn away, the decision there is clear. Verse 18.

They say with one voice, we too will serve the Lord because he is our God. They look back and see the way in which he brought their ancestors out of Egypt. They know he's the true God, the one who saves.

But while it might seem an obvious choice, Joshua wants them to be clear. This is not an easy path to follow. There, in verse 19, he says to the people, you are not able to serve the Lord. He's a holy God. He's a jealous God.

He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring you to disaster and make an end of you after he has been good to you.

I think it's as though he's testing them, making sure they know what they're signing up for. This will be a costly path. This won't be easy. Are you sure you want to make this decision today? Verse 21.

The people said, no, we will serve the Lord. It's quite normal in these covenant agreements as they're presented in the Scriptures, to present the good and the bad, the blessings and the curses, the rights and responsibilities. And it's true, following Jesus is not the easy life. In fact, Jesus promises quite the opposite. He promises trials and suffering and persecution.

He says, you will be hated by everyone because of me. He says, whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

And that's where the story ends, with Joshua. There he sets up a stone as a witness against them. This is the promise you've made. You better go and live it out.

But that's not where Jesus, the true and better Joshua, leaves things. Listen to what Jesus says. Jesus says, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Jesus doesn't leave you wandering if you've done enough, if you've kept your end of the bargain. He doesn't leave you fearing disaster. He doesn't make you doubt whether your sins can be forgiven. You see where Joshua warns of curses, of disobedience. Jesus promises life in his Name.

Because unlike Joshua, Jesus comes with the authority to actually forgive sins, to actually sort out our biggest problem, to defeat death. He comes as the jealous God, showing that he won't let you go. He comes to shed his blood so that forgiveness of sins can be secured for you. You see, Jesus invites a decision from each of us today. Just as Joshua stood among the people said make a decision, so Jesus offers that same decision today.

Will you serve me, the one who served you? Will you love the one who has loved you? Will you give your life to the one who died for you? It's a decision for today, but one which affects eternity. That's how this chapter, this book ends.

It ends with a picture of eternity. It ends with Joshua's death and Joshua being buried in the promised land. And so too, there's a little snippet about Joseph's bones being buried in the land too, and Eleazar buried in the promised land as an indicator that that's where their hope was in life and in death. Their hope was in God's promises and his inheritance that will surely come. There, in God's promises, he found his eternal rest.

So even today, Joshua shows us that we too, when we follow Jesus, the true and better Joshua, can find our eternal home, our perfect rest in him forever. Let me pray.

Lord Jesus, like Joshua, you stand in the midst of your people and you invite us to make a decision.

You came to serve us. You came to love us. You came to die in our place. You came to give us life, an eternal inheritance, one that can never be taken away. And so now you rightly stand before us and invite us even today to decide to follow you, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Father, for many of us, we'll have been following Jesus for many years, and so we would tonight recommit ourselves to following you, in whose way we find perfect rest and freedom. But, Lord, unconscious, for others, this might be a point of decision. For the first time today, Jesus, you invite us to come.

And so, for those here tonight who haven't made that decision, Lord, please speak to them. And perhaps even in this moment, we want to echo Joshua's resolve. As for me, today, I choose to serve the Lord.

Amen.